There was mention on the PCB forum about it...pretty much a non-licensed copy of their inverter (but they also had no patents on it). Photogenic is using the same manufacturer too. Pretty funny that it costs more ;-)

Every time a competitor to the Vagabond pops up it turns out that it's not really even close to competitive in terms of cost. I don't even look at prices of these things even more because I know it won't be cheaper.

I'm not sure I understand why the Tronix Mini is considered to be compatible with more flash units than the Buff Mini. Which flashes is the Tronix Mini compatible with that the Buff mini isn't ... and what / why makes it so (engineering/design)?

The PCBuff flashes are designed to tolerate (voltage drop) a pretty low charging power, hence they are content with the smallish inverter of the Vagabond ML. Many "digital" flashes of other brands are better served by higher rated inverters, as in this case the Tronix Mini's 400W (1200W peak).

I see the SLA being able to generate a faster recycle time (trade-off @ # of flashes/weight) than the LI, but I'm still a bit confused @ how that makes the Tronix compatible with more flashes. And if the Tronix is compatible with more flashes than the VML, doesn't that put the Photogenic in a similar quandary ... and wouldn't Photogenic need to be safeguarding themselves by indicating "non-compatibility" issues if they exist.

Please excuse my "grossly" limited electronics knowledge, but are we not just filling capacitors in the flash from the battery via the inverter. The slower "fill rate" of the the LI versions taking longer to fill the caps in the flash, but once the caps are filled ... how does the SLA vs. LI issue affect compatibility?

The Photogenic rates @ 120W (continuous), so I get how that makes for a slower recycle time than the 400W (continuous) Tronix ... but I still don't get how that makes it (Photogenic/VML) less compatible. Isn't that kinda like saying that Alkaline vs. Lithium vs. Ni-Cd are not compatible in a given speedlight because they have different discharge rates? Sure, they take a different amount of time to fill the caps, but once the caps are filled

I recently purchased the Vagabond Mini to power my Photogenic PL1250 and they work perfectly together. I tested and got about 200 pops on full power with 5 sec intervals before the fan on the Vagabond mini came on.

"Every time a competitor to the Vagabond pops up it turns out that it's not really even close to competitive in terms of cost. I don't even look at prices of these things even more because I know it won't be cheaper.